Internet

European politicians locked in embarrassing Wikipedia gaffes

February 17, 2009, 03:12 PM — 

Because the world economy is cruising along quite nicely and there are no other major political problems to deal with, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and opposition leader David Cameron decided to get into a public spat about the birthdate of renaissance artist Titian.  Brown gave a speech in which he mentioned "Titian at 90"; Cameron mocked him in parliament by saying that the painter died at 86.  Unfortunately, no one is really sure how old the artist was when he died -- but that didn't stop a staffer for Cameron's party from editing Wikipedia to prove his boss was right.  Meanwhile, a Wiki-vandal added an extra middle name to the article about Germany's new economy minister; the fake name was picked up by the German media, which was then used as a citation in the original Wikipedia entry.

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